Monday, January 6, 2014

Happy New Year everyone! I'm pleased to share our newest challenge for this week. It's called "Altered Ancestors-Actual or Instant." I feel like a little clarification might be needed on this one.

First of all, an ancestor by our terms means any relative of yours, living or dead. The word "altered" refers to the idea of somehow changing the look of your ancestor. By "actual" I mean a real relative of yours. "Instant" means that you borrow, or even steal, someone else's relative. Is that as clear as mud? Let me show an example.

This lovely lady is someone's ancestor. I really don't know if she was an actual one or an instant one. The artist felt that the hairstyle looked like it would be a good host for a bird's nest and so that's one thing she did to alter the portrait. I love the addition of lace to form the lady's collar and the border on the image. I'm sure this artist has a great sense of humor too.

This collage came from a site I frequent. The artist hosts fun art swaps and runs an online shop selling collage materials at really great prices. I've joined lots of her swaps and have always appreciated the images I receive. If you check out her blog, you've got to visit her store too.

This artist's work surprised me. When I first looked at this photo, I thought it was a simple family portrait. Upon close inspection, I realized he replaced all of the faces with his own. He did an entire series this way and it really intrigued me.

Let's dig out our box of photos, or find on on the internet to play with. (If you use an actual photo of an ancestor, you might want to copy it and use the copy for your art.) Alter it up with whatever you like to create art with. Paint it, bedazzle it, collage it, cut and paste it... the sky's the limit! Post your image by Sunday, January 12, 2014 at 12:00 noon EST. Please leave a comment when you post. And be sure to visit the blogs of the other entries. I'm pretty sure this one will be fun!